


Our Love is a Battlefield

by Crystallized_Shadow



Series: Tumblr Drabbles [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gai doesn't like such unyouthful talk, M/M, Madara is stuck in the past, Melancholy thoughts, he just wants to go to the Pure Lands with his old friend, he knocks some sense into Madara, set in WrithingBeneathYou's Ward of Konoha universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-19
Packaged: 2020-10-21 15:07:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20695535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystallized_Shadow/pseuds/Crystallized_Shadow
Summary: Madara is defeated during the Fourth Shinobi War and taken in as a ward of Konoha. He just wished his warden, Gai, didn't remind him so much of Hashirama.





	Our Love is a Battlefield

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mike_H](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mike_H/gifts), [WrithingBeneathYou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WrithingBeneathYou/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Square-up](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19352353) by [WrithingBeneathYou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WrithingBeneathYou/pseuds/WrithingBeneathYou). 

> Written for Hiro's prompt "I’ve never felt stronger than when you’re with me" over on tumblr and for Writhing who made be fall in love with this rare pair (seriously if anyone hasn't read the [Ward of Konoha](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1486409) series go read it!)
> 
> Also this is my first crack at writing Gai, so I hope he turned out okay!

Madara liked to think he hated Gai with a burning passion the Uchiha were famous for, even if the little voice in his head disagreed with him. Without Zetsu around to corrupt his thoughts, that damn voice sounded a lot like Hashirama; it was just like that fucking Senju to torment him from the pure lands. He was sure at least Tobirama was having a good laugh up there, enjoying how eternal paradise had been denied to Madara, AGAIN. Instead of getting to reunite with Izuna and his other brothers, Madara was stuck in the village he’d already forsaken once; shackled to the very beast that had bested him. That stung his pride worse than the chakra suppression seals tattooed into his skin.

“Your heart is not in our battle my friend!” The booming voice has Madara blinking and staring across the training field at the bane of his existence.

“We’re not friends,” Madara states and sage dammit if that wasn’t the start to half of his conversations with Hashirama.

“Of course, we are!” Gai’s grin is over the top and sends another pang of longing through Madara. “Shall we continue our youthful endeavor?”

Normally Madara would raise to the challenge clear in those bottomless black eyes, but today the Uchiha is stuck in a time long past that he’ll never get back to. “Don’t you tire of this farce Beast?” He asks instead, crossing his arms under the protection of his yukata sleeves, making it clear he’s not fighting anymore.

“What farce?” Gai asks, bushy eyebrows furrowing in confusion as he too stands up straight; Madara suspected the taijutsu master cared more about their spare than his strange behavior but nothing was sure with Maito Gai.

“This,” Madara let’s his eyes sweep over the clearing no other shinobi dared approach, their fear of Madara still too great, before he looks at the youthful green beast before him. “Surely you must grow bored of acting so friendly; I am hardly blind to the fact you surely despise me as much as the others from the war. When will you put me out of your misery?”

“I…I don’t follow,” Gai admits and Madara’s eye twitches in annoyance, “why would I act differently around only you?”

“Must I spell everything out for your puny brain?” Madara growls, wishing not for the first time that Gai’s brain was as strong as his other muscles. “Everyone in Konoha wants me dead, are you so weak that you need to drag this out?”

“Yosh! I’ve never felt stronger than during our youthful clashes!!”

“Of course, I’m a bigger cripple than you,” Madara scoffs, his anger fading as he stares off into the distance. “Everyone wants me dead,” he repeats, his tone far away and detached in a way Gai has never heard as he continues, “I want me dead. You’re my warden Maito Gai, how long will you prolong my suffering? Have I not repented for the lives I took?”

“No one wants you dead!” Gai interjects, a frown marring his usually joyful face, “enough of this unyouthful talk!”

“I am old and so tired,” Madara continues like Gai hasn’t spoken, his unfocused eyes glancing in Gai’s general direction, “I just want to find the paradise Hashirama spoke of. Will you send me there?”

The fist slamming into his cheek hard enough to sending him crashing across the clearing catches Madara by surprise. For a moment he just sits there, brain trying to figure out what just happened.

“You are my friend Madara,” Gai states, his serious tone drawing the Uchiha’s attention, “I won’t tolerate such talk any longer, understand?”

“Look at you Beast, you almost sound human,” Madara taunts, because he wants the other’s anger to back his fists. “I didn’t realize you still had nerves I could strike.”

“I’m not going to kill you,” Gai ignores the other’s words, “nor is anyone else in Konoha, least they face my power of youth!”

“How can you be a bigger disaster than Hashirama was?” Madara asks exasperated, unable to tear his eyes away from the strange man that held no anger at him, despite nearly dying at his hand not even a year ago.

“Yosh! You really think so!?” The honest to sage excitement in Gai’s tone at being compared to the God of Shinobi breaks something in Madara and the Uchiha can’t stop the laugh the breaks free as he finally stands up.

“Hashirama is the only shinobi I could never best,” Madara says as he drops back into his crouch, “a title I won’t allow you to take.”

“We shall see.” Gai’s grin is nowhere near as vicious as Madara’s but the Uchiha knows the youthful beast will do everything in his tremendous power to steal that title from his childhood friend. Madara looks forward to the challenge.


End file.
